“The Glen of Muses”

Gleann na Ceolraidh

a celebration of the life and work of

Margaret Fay Shaw

E-mail - info@mfayshaw.co.uk

LECTURERS

 

HUGH CHEAPE is a Principal Curator in the National Museums of Scotland. He joined the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1974 after studying Scottish History at Edinburgh University. He has been principally involved with research into the National Museums’ collections and with 38 exhibitions both at home and abroad. He has also been closely involved with the creation of the Scottish Agricultural Museum, the Museum of Scotland and the Museum of Piping. He worked with the Campbells of Canna in the 1990s and has supported the work of the National Trust for Scotland of which he is now a Vice-President. He has written and edited a number of books and has published widely in academic journals.

 

JOHN LOVE has lived in South Uist for fifteen years having recently retired as Area Officer for Scottish Natural Heritage in Uist, Barra and St Kilda. A native of Inverness, he graduated in zoology from Aberdeen University in  1970. For 10 years he lived on the Isle of Rum managing the reintroduction of the white-tailed sea eagle to Scotland. His books include the story of the sea eagles and a human history of Rum. He first met John Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw in 1976 and still visits Canna regularly.

 

PAUL McCALLUM came from Glasgow to live in North Glendale at the age of four. A natural-born singer he was soon steeped in the tradition of the area and in 1985 won the Gold medal for traditionl singing at the National Mod.and the gold medal from An Comunn Gaidhealach two years later. He now performs regularly both at home and abroad. He teaches children at the local feisean each year and tutors adults in the songs of South Uist and vocal technique at the Benbecula campus of Lews Castle College. ‘Margaret’s Glen’ is his third CD.

 

SISTER MARGARET MacDONNELL had known and corresponded with Margaret Fay Shaw and John Lorne Campbell for over fifty years. She visited Canna regulary and first set foot on South Uist in 1957, with a visit to Barra in 1971. Sister Margaret trained in Celtic at Harvard and in 1977 became head of the Celtic Department at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia until she retired in 1986. Her book ‘The Emigrant Experience: songs of the Highland Emigrants in North America’ was published in 1982.

 

DR MARGARET MACKAY was born in Regina, Canada and studied at the University of Toronto and the University of Edinburgh. She was appointed to the staff of the School of Scottish Studies as a Research  Fellow in 1974 and has worked there ever since as a Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer) and as Director of the Archives. She is currently preparing a history of the School. Her doctoral research was supervised in part by Professor Angus McIntosh, close friend of the Campbells of Canna. His vital role in  the creation of the School of Scottish Studies and the fulfilment of a  vision which it represented, with the encouragement of friends and  associates, forms the theme of her lecture.

 

VIVIEN MACKIE was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal College of Music. In 1952 she went to France to study with the world famous cellist Pablo Casals. A professional cellist of considerable acclaim, she now lives in London. She has recently published a book about her experience with Casals,  and now travels  worldwide, teaching musicians about her own particular fusion of Casal’s principles and those of the Alexander Technique. She paid regular visits to Canna House and passed many enjoyable hours performing Gaelic songs on cello alongside Margaret on her Steinway grand piano.

 

DR SARAH MARR was born in South Uist, moved to Islay briefly before returning to Benbecula where her father was GP. It was walking to Torlum school (barefoot in summer) that she first developed an interest in plants and insects - encouraged by her mother and Donnie MacRury – and which she has now passed on to her own children. Completing her secondary education  in Ayrshire, Sarah went on to study medicine at Glasgow University, and is now practicing  in Paisley. As a native Gaelic speaker she is thus well qualified to lecture on the natural remedies of South Uist.

 

ISHBEL T MACDONALD  was brought up in Glasgow with Gaelic being her first language. She has strong South Uist connections and proud to be a descendant of the Roidean family and of her relationship to Muinntir Eardsaidh Raghnaill. Ishbel T. is known and respected for her beautiful compositions in the Gaelic Hymnal, her knowledge and expertise in setting up Feis Bharraidh and countless radio broadcasts for children and adults. She is undoubtedly the most informed person on Uist’s oral tradition alive today.

 

MAGDA SAGARZAZU has been the Archivist for the National Trust for Scotland living in Canna House for the past ten years, and along with Margaret Fay Shaw during her last years. Magda, from the Basque country, first visited Canna in 1962 with her father Saturnino, who was a close friend of John Lorne Campbell, and she returned to stay with the Campbell many times. She worked with Dr Campbell on some of his studies and no one knows his library and Margaret’s collection better than her. She speaks fluent Basque, Spanish, French and English.